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Oh for goodness sakes - more London divide and rule nonsense.
A clued up Londoner here. I am also, politically aware. I also have to know about cites. Whitehall does divide and rule and has done so in promoting London into a world super-city over the past 35 years at the expense of all others. This has been disastrous for native Londoners who can't afford to live in the places they were born. Wealth should be spread around not concentrated. The North West needs one large city and the natural choice is commercial deep water port Liverpool. The BBC was planted in Manchester without and say from Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds or whatsoever. A political decision.
Liverpool does have an underground metro network, I use it, and like London's most is overground. Maybe I dreamt I was riding on underground trains under Liverpool and Birkenhead then . People use it to ride from suburb to suburb. The Welsh want the Birkenhead to Wrexham line electrified and put on Liverpool's metro, and want to pay for part of the cost, to have direct underground access to Liverpool.
HS2 Phase 2 will not happen as far as I can see. The cost will be too much for so little gain. Crewe is only 30-40 miles from Liverpool and Manchester and the Scots will use air to get to London. It will be economically not worth it and Liverpool will kick up wanting its HS2 station. Just not worth it. Money is better spent on local rail. The decision to go ahead will be taken around 2027. HS2 will release existing lines for freight from Liverpool's expanded port. Manchester in 25-30 years time will be very different vs Liverpool and Leeds to now. The Liverpool City Region is currently served by Liverpool and Chester Virgin trains. Manchester only has Piccadilly.
Liverpool Waters and Wirral Waters have been waiting in the wings for a long time and a depression got in the way, but planning continued. Manchester's investments pail into insignificance to Liverpool's. The port expansion is highly significant and the cruise liner terminal as well, which is set to take a lot of business from Southampton serving all the north of England and Scotland. Not forgetting the Atlantic Gateway from Liverpool up to Manchester.
These lists are almost universally inane. Anything that isn't Paris and London make them. Half of those are quite touristy and the only ones that seemed appropriate were Bucharest and Genoa, maybe the Polish cities and Brno.
Tallinn, Estonia: Not that many tourists besides drunk Finns. I really enjoyed the centre.
Riga, Latvia: Quite nice, too many drunk Brits.
Bozen/Bolzano, Italy: Quite popular amongst Austrians and (proper) Italians. Love it.
Trieste, Italy: Well, actually it's full of tourists. People from overseas seem to avoid it, though.
San Sebastian, Spain: Also not really a hidden gem, but quite nice.
Cities/towns in Austria that may be worthwhile and unknown abroad: Rust (Burgenland), Gmunden (Upper Austria) and Alpbach (Tyrol)
In Italy, I would overlook Genoa, but not the surrounding small towns on the coast, while, on the other side, I would not overlook Trieste and Ravenna. Personally I would add Arles in France and, in Portugal, Evora and a trip through Algarve.
A band from Arles came to my town and played a concert.
Tallinn, Estonia: Not that many tourists besides drunk Finns. I really enjoyed the centre.
Riga, Latvia: Quite nice, too many drunk Brits.
Bozen/Bolzano, Italy: Quite popular amongst Austrians and (proper) Italians. Love it.
Trieste, Italy: Well, actually it's full of tourists. People from overseas seem to avoid it, though.
San Sebastian, Spain: Also not really a hidden gem, but quite nice.
Cities/towns in Austria that may be worthwhile and unknown abroad: Rust (Burgenland), Gmunden (Upper Austria) and Alpbach (Tyrol)
My experience is that Salzburg is very overlooked by people in the U.S. I rarely talk with anyone who has been to Salzburg or knows much about it.
I dislike capitals, thus I never cared for London, Paris, Berlin etc. I prefer smaller, finer cities. In Germany alone there are lots of them, for instance Aachen, Koblenz and Göttingen. In Spain I like Zaragoza, in Portugal Braga, Setúbal Guimarães, Aveiro, Tomar, etc.
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. People use it to ride from suburb to suburb. The Welsh want the Birkenhead to Wrexham line electrified and put on Liverpool's metro, and want to pay for part of the cost, to have direct underground access to Liverpool.
To the original point
